


The Pirate and the Queen

by distractionpie



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Bad library etiquette, Bullying, Gen, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1892823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractionpie/pseuds/distractionpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David hasn't been keeping to his usual routine - Jack and Sarah investigate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pirate and the Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chiana606](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiana606/gifts).



> I got a little bit off prompt with this I'm afraid, David is more of a catalyst for events than the centre of them, but hopefully it still lines up with some of what wasrequested.
> 
> Title from Love in The Library by Jimmy Buffett because when I'm having title trouble I like to stick the story's keywords and into lyric sites and roll with the suggestions regardless of how appropriate the actual song is.

Jack bought two dozen or so extra papers most days. If David decided he was selling after school then he got his papers from Jack rather than having to head all the way to the distribution office to see if they had any left; and if he didn’t then Jack would sell as many as he could and sell the rest back, to Weasel’s displeasure. Generally David came out to sell at least twice a week, so when it got around to Thursday and Jack had seen no sign of him he figured it would be smart to go around to the Jacobs’ place and see what was up. David had occasionally skipped out on selling before, when he had a big test to study for or essay to write, but he had always let Jack know.

Jack knew that school kept David busy, and now their father was back at work selling was less important to Les and David, but he still found the whole situation odd; it wouldn’t hurt to go around to the Jacobs’ place and ask after the family, no need for it to be anything other than a social call.

It was easy enough to get to the Jacobs’ apartment, the entrance to the building was propped open with a rock, which made it easier the dozen families in the building coming and going, Jack supposed, was wasn’t very safe. The Jacobs’ family didn’t live in a bad part of Manhattan, but they didn’t live in a good one either.

Jack had skipped the fire escape in the hopes of making a good impression on David’s parents, just in case there was something worrisome going on, but it was Sarah who opened the door.

“Evenin’ Sarah,” Jack said, “Is David around?”

Sarah ignored his question, turning and calling back over her shoulder, “Jack’s here mama, we’re going to go meet David, we won’t be long.”

She quickly shut the door behind her and hustled Jack down the stairs and out onto the street.

“What the heck?” Jack said. “I mean not that I ain’t…”

“I think David’s in trouble,” she said. “He’s been home late every night this week with no explanation. I wanted to go and look for him but our mother said that she didn’t think I ought to be walking alone when it’s going to be dark soon, but she won’t mind me walking with you.”

Jack wasn’t so sure. Mrs. Jacobs was awfully tolerant of him, but Sarah was right, it would be dark soon, and it probably won’t be all that great for Sarah to be out on the streets of Manhattan in his just company after nightfall either.

“So you told her we’re going to meet David?” Jack asked. “Why not just say he’s in trouble?”

“I don’t want to worry her,” Sarah said. “I don’t think it’s a dangerous sort of trouble, not really. I asked Les where he though David was and he said, well there are these boys at their school…” Sarah sighed, and Jack nodded understandingly. He was pretty sure he and Sarah were of a similar mind regarding David’s classmates. David insisted he ought to get along with them, they were the sort of people he’d be working with as an adult and there wasn’t anything extraordinarily troublesome about them. Sarah had once confided in Jack that she thought some of David’s classmates bore a discomfiting resemblance to the Delancy brothers, although most of David’s classmates didn’t partake in physical labour and so were mostly less muscular. Jack wasn’t all that fond of the idea of back breaking work, but he wondered if maybe if there was a grain of sense in the folks that said a bit of hard work was good for the character – heck only a day of hauling papers around Manhattan had turned David from a bit of a snot who wanted nothing to do with jack into the sort of person who was willing to invited Jack home to share a meal and laugh with him. Still that was beside the point.

“How do you know he’s in trouble?” he asked Sarah.

“Something Les said,” she explained.

“Okay, so where are we going?”

“The library.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “The library?” What on earth could David do in a library that would get him into trouble? Jack hadn’t been in many libraries, places that demanded quiet weren’t his speed. Still, they’d never struck him as particularly dangerous places.

*

Jack had only ever been in a library once before, he’d been much younger and hoping that they’d have books about cowboys. Once it turned out that you needed a parent and an address that wasn’t a lodging house before they’d let you take the books away he’d lost interest. He didn’t have the time to sit around in the library to read, and he was pretty sure that if he tried they’d probably assume he was hoping to sleep there and shoo him out as a vagrant. The librarian at the front desk glared at him as they entered. He suspected it was only the fact he was with Sarah, who looked neat and smart and like she belonged, that they didn’t try and throw him right back out again. It was peaceful inside though, if a bit stifling, and Jack wondered if Sarah had gotten it wrong. Generally when people were in the kind of trouble that made a person look as worried as Sarah was there was a lot more yelling, and sometimes crashing about.

They eventually found David on the upstairs floor. Jack knew immediately that something was not right about the three guys standing around him. While they weren’t doing anything obviously wrong there was something slimy about them, and they kept glaring at David.

Jack sized them up quickly. Yes, there were three of them, but only one of them was bigger than him, and they didn’t seem like the type who would really go for fighting in a library.

He glanced over at Sarah, waiting for some sort of cue, as she seemed to have a far better understanding of this situation than he did.

They approached quietly. Once they were a little nearer Jack could see that David’s jacket was rumpled and torn at one elbow, and there was a small cut on his lip. He looked annoyed rather than frightened, which was reassuring, but Jack still felt a rush of anger and concern when the tallest of the boys surrounding David lay a hand on David's shoulder, causing David to flinch away.

His flinch cause David’s gaze to fall on Sarah and Jack, his eyes widening in surprise, and then narrowing with something like resignation. “Hello Sarah,” he said, “Jack.”

“Heya Dave,” Jack said. “It’s a nice evenin’. No time to be holed up indoors like this.”

“What’s it to you?” said one of the boys, a greasy, rat-faced kid in a fancy looking shirt.

“Well I wouldn’t like my brother to be late for dinner,” Sarah said, although Jack had heard her mention several times since they’d met that the only reason she felt that way was because when David came home later the meal was delayed for the whole household, and even Mrs. Jacobs’ excellent cooking lost some of its appeal once it had be left to sit for several hours.

“Oh, you’re his sister,” said rat-face disdainfully.

Sarah smiled at him, “Yes,” she said, “Although I’m afraid I don’t know you.”

“Why would you?” rat-face responded. “This is nothing to do with you.”

“Well I know your friends,” Sarah observed. She nodded to the fair haired boy, who was standing off to the side and had been shifting uneasily ever since he’d first registered their presence. “Michael Bragg, your mother works at the shoe factory, doesn’t she?” Sarah said. The boy’s eyes widened in alarm but Sarah was already turning on the largest boy, who was still leaning over David menacingly. “And Joseph Rapp, you have five brothers, don’t you? I do mending for your mother sometimes.”

Rapp took a sharp step away from David, holding his hands up in clear surrender, but rat-face glared defiantly. “So you know their mothers, so what?” he sneered.

But Jack could see it in the other boy’s eyes. Their hearts were now longer in it. Jack didn’t know that many people with mothers, but most of those who had were scared stiff of them; it seemed these guys were no different.

“C’mon Bill, let’s leave it,” said Bragg, “It’s only Latin left, and Mr Werther’s a soft touch anyway.”

Rat-faced Bill shook his head and stepped up to Sarah. “Well, you don’t know my mother,” he said.

Sarah glanced over at Jack and nodded ever so slightly.

Jack reached out and laid a hand on rat-face’s shoulder. “Well your face don’t know my fists,” he said, flashing rat-face his most personable smile – the once which he generally saved for particularly rude customers and newcomers who thought they could mess with Crutchy. “But if you like I’m sure we can all get acquainted.”

Rat-face looked from Jack to David and then over at the staircase, at the foot of which a librarian was no doubt waiting to chase the lot of them out at the first sign of trouble. Rat-face shrugged off Jack’s hand and said, “This isn’t finished,” spitting his words in David’s direction.

Jack opened his mouth to reiterate his threat but Sarah cut him off.

“I’m sure we’re all friends here, aren’t we?” she said primly. Bragg and Rapp nodded hastily, grabbing rat-face by the arms. Sarah smiled sweetly. “Lovely. Come along David, we wouldn’t want to miss dinner.”

Sarah turned her back on the boys, and made her way towards the stairs, leaving David to gather up his notes from the table and chase after them. Jack followed the pair down the stairs out of the library, marvelling at what he’d just seen. If three boys ganged up on another in the lodging house or on the streets there was no way it would be resolved without the use of fists, but here Jack’s threat had been secondary to Sarah’s manners.

Once they were a suitable distance from the library, Sarah turned on David and said, “Well?”

“Why did you come?” David replied, still trying to get all of his things back in his bag.

“You’ve been home late every night this week,” Sarah responded. “And not even because you’ve been with Jack. It wasn't like you.”

David shrugged. “They just wanted me to do their exercises for them. It’s hardly worth making a fuss.”

Jack frowned. He knew how much time David spent on his own exercises, and how difficult they could be. He was pretty sure doing them for three other people wasn’t as insignificant as David was trying to suggest.

“Technically, it’s cheating,” Sarah huffed. “Why would you go along with that?”

“What was I supposed to do? There’s three of them, and they were talking about taking it out on Les, if I wasn’t cooperative,” David defended.

Jack felt anger boil up in his gut. It was bad enough that they were picking on David, but to threaten a little kid…

“If they just try it…” he said.

“They won’t,” Sarah announced, with a roll of her eyes. “Really David, did you fall for that? They’ll be awful to you because all of your teachers will say boys will be boys and make you share the blame, but they’d never get away with going after a little kid like Les.”

“Damn right, they wouldn’t,” said Jack, “Pretty much any newsie in Manhattan would go after ‘em for that. Heck, maybe even all o’ New York, I reckon Spot would have somethin’ ta say about people goin’ after a kid he actually likes. Bein’ in a union means sticking together.”

David blinked. “But Les and I aren’t… Les doesn’t sell papers anymore, and I sell hardly any.”

Jack shrugged. “Just ‘cause you ain’t sellin’ papes, doesn’t mean you ain’t one of us.”

David nodded slowly, like he understood what Jack was saying, even if he wasn’t quite buying it. “Anyhow,” Jack added, tipping his hat in Sarah’s direction, “Even if it ain’t newsie business, I reckon Sarah here’s got you back covered pretty well.”

Sarah laughed, but there was steel in her eyes.


End file.
